VOA News
Iran’s judiciary announced Friday, May 19, it executed three men convicted of killing security force members during protests last year triggered by Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody, drawing condemnation from rights groups, and cries of protest in the capital, Tehran.
Iran’s judiciary online news outlet, Mizan, reported Friday that Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi and Saeed Yaqoubi were executed in the central city of Isfahan, saying they had killed — or “martyred” — two members of the Basij paramilitary force and a law enforcement officer during protests Nov. 16.
However, the executed men and their families had repeatedly denied the accusations. The three defendants also said they were forced to make televised confessions under duress.
The posting did not say how the men were executed, but media reports say they were hanged.
From his Twitter account, Mohammad Hashemi, cousin of one of the executed men, Majid Kazemi, wrote that the bodies of the three men were “supposed to be secretly buried in Habib Abad cemetery of Isfahan.”
Vienna-based human rights activist Hassan Nayeb Hashem, told Voice of America’s Persian service, “The Islamic Republic of Iran, called the Republic of Executioners by the people, made its blood-stained hand even bloodier today.”
German Representative to the European Parliament, Hanna Neuman, on Twitter, called for “a serious reaction” from world authorities to the executions, asserting that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard needs to be added to terror lists.
In user-generated videos posted to social media Friday, the voices of people chanting protests of the executions — “death to the Islamic Republic,” “death to the regime that kills the youth” and “death to the assassin Khamenei” — could be heard echoing through the city center of Tehran shortly after the executions.
Mass demonstrations broke out late last year in Iran following the September 16 death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, following her arrest days earlier for alleged violations of the country’s strict dress code for women.
In the following months and weeks, demonstrations for women’s rights evolved into a nationwide wave of government protests that were met with a swift crackdown by state security forces.
More than 19,600 people have been arrested during the protests, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that’s been tracking the crackdown.
Upwards of 527 people have been killed by authorities amid a violent suppression of the demonstrations, which have subsided in recent months.
Friday’s executions bring to seven the number of people put to death by the government in connection with the protests.
The United Nations Human Rights Office has said trials of the accused were “marred by violations of due process guarantees in proceedings that fell short of international fair trial standards.”
The agency said executions following such trials were “tantamount to arbitrary deprivation of life under international law.” – gb
